


The Ghost from London

by OpheliaAlexiou



Category: Hard Fantasy, Original - Fandom, Paranormal Fantasy, Shadow Masquerade, Supernatural Fantasy
Genre: Comedy, Erotica, Explicit Language, Ghosts, Humans, Kink, Light Dom/sub, Light Masochism, Light Sadism, M/M, Paranormal, Plot, Romance, Sadomasochism, Slow Build, Supernatural - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-30 23:07:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3955375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpheliaAlexiou/pseuds/OpheliaAlexiou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of a relationship between a dead Welsh boy from the 1,200s and a living Chinese boy from the 2,000s, both born and raised in the British isles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Story begins on June 3, 2019.
> 
> If you like this story and think you might enjoy reading more of my writing, please consider checking out the published writings on sale in Barnes & Noble's Nook market. I have published 3 novels so far, in the Hellenic/Greek mythological fantasy genre, though they contain no graphic erotic content. The protagonist is a blind, bisexual son of Apollo, and the stories are set just before the rise of Alexander the Great; if this sounds like something you would enjoy, please click below:
> 
>  
> 
> [Of Emeralds and Gold, Part One](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/of-emeralds-and-gold-part-one-ophelia-alexiou/1120962746?ean=2940151484145)  
> [Of Emeralds and Gold, Part Two](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/of-emeralds-and-gold-part-two-ophelia-alexiou/1120962748?ean=2940151572019)  
> [For Glory and Honour](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/for-glory-and-honour-ophelia-alexiou/1120962753?ean=2940149998401)

                “All right, and my seat is,” said the English-born eighteen-year-old, smalt blue eyes focused on the ticket for a moment before he paused and looked for markers, “Nope, still further back… ah, there it… you know, she could’ve just said it was in the back left corner.” The eighteen-year-old mumbled faintly to himself as he moved to take his spot in an aisle seat, in one of England’s first 800-passenger A380 Airbuses. It was the second deck, his parents had ensured he would travel comfortably; it wasn’t first class, but it wasn’t coach, either, and he was more than happy with that. It wasn’t as if he came from a family of means, after all, but he was immigrating to the United States in the hope that he would be more fortunate than most.

                “Oh, hey,” he said, as he noticed a young man sitting beside him, he looked a little younger than him, maybe a year and a half or thereabouts, definitely from an ethnic group considerably more local to London than his lineage.

                “My name’s Junjie,” said the eighteen-year-old in greeting as he stopped at the seat, still holding a carry-on bag, more for emergencies than anything he’d necessarily need for the flight.

                “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Elidyr,” replied the young Welshman in the aisle seat.

                “Elidyr?” repeated Junjie, “That’s a fascinating name. I’ve never heard anything like that before.”

                “It’s Welsh. It isn’t especially common, but I like it,” answered Elidyr, as Junjie opened the shared overhead compartment to stow his carry-on.

                “It’s definitely a stylish name. Better be careful, it might just become trendy when we get to the States, some pregnant lady will hear it and suddenly there’ll be a million of you milling around,” Junjie replied, as he closed the overhead compartment, “So, wait, don’t you have a carry-on with you?”

                “I travel light,” Elidyr replied casually, and Junjie nodded as he sat down, then looked up and away when the fasten seatbelts light came on and a chime sounded with it. Reflexively, he buckled his seatbelt and then looked up at the stewardess as she approached.

                “Everything okay?” asked the blond twenty-something, her bluish-grey eyes focusing on him with a friendly smile; if nothing else she was a consummate professional when it came to her job.

                “Yep, everything’s stellar. Thank you,” he replied, and as she walked into the next cabin, he turned his head back toward Elidyr, and blinked, as the younger male wasn’t there, “Elidyr?” He blinked again, looking around for an instant as the plane started moving, but he couldn’t find the Welsh kid anywhere on the plane in his line-of-sight, and he felt a surge of confusion.

                About an hour later, as he returned from going to retrieve a snack for himself rather than wait for a stewardess to pass, he found Elidyr sitting there, as if he hadn’t moved.

                “Hey! Where’d you go?” asked Junjie, as he sat down, “You like, vanished into thin air, or something, right before takeoff.”

                “Oh, nowhere, really,” Elidyr answered somewhat cryptically. Junjie rolled his shoulders, deciding he would not press the issue.

                “So, vacation or migration?” Elidyr continued.

                “Migration,” Junjie replied, “How about you?”

                “Same,” Elidyr answered back.

                “You must travel really light, making a permanent move without a carry-on,” Junjie said lightheartedly, albeit Elidyr simply shrugged his shoulders and smiled a little bit in return, “So, can I ask you something?”

                “Sure.”

                “Where’d you get your clothes? I’ve never seen anything that ornately made in London, before, but they are really nice,” Junjie said, and Elidyr took a moment to look down at his clothes. When compared to Junjie’s denim pants, jeans jacket, and white tee shirt, with a pair of simple black, blue, and white sneakers, Elidyr was dressed rather finely. Elidyr, himself, was wearing a half-sleeved shirt of high-thread-count cotton with a one-inch embroidered cuff encircling the base of each sleeve, around the collar, and around the hem. The shirt itself was white, but the embroidered border was of a bright, golden colour, which matched nicely the fourteen-karat gold rope necklace around his neck. His pants had a similarly high-end look to them, dark blue cotton, held in place by a gold-coloured sash around the hips, and a pair of calf-high boots of soft black leather with matching gold-coloured laces up the front of them. The entire ensemble struck Junjie as looking like it must have been handwoven.

                “My mother made them for me before I … ah, when I was a kid,” Elidyr replied, jerking to an unnatural halt midway through the statement and amending how he chose to phrase his answer.

                “Your mother’s craftsmanship is amazing. Maybe she could make something for me if I ever get successful enough to afford it, it must be expensive,” Junjie replied.

                “I wish that were possible, but my mother died a long time ago,” Elidyr answered, and Junjie nodded slowly.

                “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” Junjie said, his tone apologetic and understanding.

                “Would you like anything to drink, sir?” asked the stewardess, abruptly, as she arrived to his other side, and forcing Junjie’s attention over toward her immediately in response. He’d collected himself something to snack on, but nothing to drink.

                “Uh, sure, hot chocolate, with marshmallows, please,” Junjie said. The stewardess nodded and then excused herself, having that not quite on-hand in her cart, but able to get it easily enough, apparently.

                “How about you, Elidyr?” asked Junjie, looking back to him as the stewardess departed for a moment.

                “No, thanks,” he replied, “Not thirsty right now.”

                “All right, here you go, sir,” the stewardess said, drawing Junjie’s attention again, “Can I get you anything else? A pillow, blanket maybe?”

                “No, I’m all right,” Junjie said, turning his head, “How about y-…” As he noted Elidyr went missing, Junjie stopped and blinked, then looked back toward the stewardess.

                “Did you see a Welsh kid go anywhere just now?”

                “A Welsh kid?” asked the stewardess, “From where?”

                “From right here in the seat beside me,” Junjie replied.

                “Sorry, sir, you’re the only one in this row on this side of the aisle. There’s no one on the manifest to use the other seat,” the stewardess replied, “Are you feeling okay?”

                “No, that’s okay,” Junjie replied courteously, eyebrows furrowing, “I could’ve sworn there was a Welsh kid, almost my age, sitting beside me, though, ever since the airport.”

                “I’ve been hearing stories about people seeing a kid from a long time ago in the airport. It sounds like a ghost story to me, one of those things people make up to explain something they don’t quite understand.”

                “You don’t believe in ghosts?”

                “Well, I’ve never seen one, and seeing is believing, right? Anyhow, let me know if you need anything else.”

                “All right, thank you,” Junjie replied, watching her leave, then looking back toward the window and jumping a little bit, as Elidyr was sitting there, “ah! Don’t do that.”

                “What? It’s not like I’m making a scary face, or anything.”

                “… you’re lucky you’re cute,” Junjie replied sternly, then took a breath, “So, wait, why the fuck is a ghost on an airplane?”

                “Why do you think I’m on an airplane? I’m relocating to the United States, exactly like I said. Do you have any idea how long it would take to go from London to Phoenix manually? I don’t have that kind of t-… okay, well, I mean, I do have that kind of time, but why should I spend that much extra time on something I can complete in just a few hours? I can’t go as fast as this plane’s going. Well, I mean, I am going as fast as this plane’s going, but that’s because I’m not moving, the plane’s moving and I simply happen to be in it.” Junjie listened to him, blinking blankly at him as he answered rather thoroughly. He lifted his left hand and swung it over experimentally, eyes widening a bit when his hand passed through Elidyr’s shirted torso.

                “Could you not do that? It’s a little disconcerting,” commented Elidyr.

                “… not just for you,” Junjie replied, staring at the youthful ghost with that particular expression one has when one just saw a ghost, or worse yet, realizes they’ve been talking to one without fully realizing it.

                “So you’re… not really sixteen, are you?”

                “Sort of,” Elidyr replied, his tone of voice a mixture of curious and contemplative.

                “What do you mean ‘sort of?’ You’re either sixteen, or you’re not sixteen,” Junjie pressed.

                “I’m eight hundred and sixteen,” Elidyr replied, “I died in London when I was still a kid, and decided to stick around because I hadn’t really even lived enough to have experienced much of anything.”

                “You could’ve told me you were dead.”

                “Oh, yes? Hi, my name’s Elidyr Kemble, I’ve been dead for eight hundred and five years. Yeah, right, that’d go over _real_ well,” Elidyr replied skeptically, and Junjie blinked at him.

                “You may have a point. I don’t like being surprised by discovering the cute boy I’ve been talking to is dead, and has been for centuries, though,” Junjie answered back.

                “That’s understandable. Sadly, Emily Post’s rules of etiquette didn’t include advice on how to tell a hot guy that you’ve been dead for the last ten generations of his family history. Wait, you think I’m cute?” Elidyr replied, with his tone-of-voice changing at the end, porcelain-coloured cheeks tinting lavender in response and a shy smile to match.

                “Of course I do, your personality is adorable, your hair’s beautiful, and your skin looks soft and healthy, even if that seems kind of contradictory for a ghost,” Junjie replied, “So you find me hot, huh? I have to say, that’s sort of surprising, given that you’re a ghost, and all.” His smile told Elidyr that he was pleasantly surprised, though, and that he was harder to bring to blush than Elidyr tended to be.

                “So, wait, you said you died when you were a kid, but you look like you’re sixteen. Sixteen is not a kid,” Junjie said, to which Elidyr nodded.

                “Yeah, I died when I was eleven. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience,” Elidyr answered.

                “Wait, how does that work, then? I mean, shouldn’t you look eleven?”

                “I used to. Then I grew older, over the last few centuries there’ve been some very considerate folks who let me borrow their bodies for a little while,” Elidyr explained, “During which time, I age naturally, or at least, I will age naturally until a certain point, anyhow. I mean, I am a ghost, after all, I won’t exactly age my entire life away.”

                “Wait, you’re able to possess a body?”

                “No, possession implies the use of force. I cannot forcibly commandeer someone’s body, they have to grant me permission to use it, and then, only for a specified duration. You know, an hour here, two hours there, maybe eight hours from someone else, even a whole day on the rare occasion,” Elidyr explained, “It’s been nice meeting some real considerate people back home over the centuries, let me experience some stuff I never had before. Or, perhaps, allow me to be one of the first people on Earth to experience something that was only recently developed anywhere, like the invention of the train.”

                “You can’t ride on trains? You’re on a plane.”

                “It’s an entirely different experience to ride a train when you have a body compared to when you don’t have a body,” Elidyr pointed out, “Sure, I’m riding in the plane right now, technically, but you can feel stuff I cannot. Like, is there turbulence? Does the ride feel especially smooth? What does the air smell like? Does the hot chocolate taste good? How about the snacks, does British Airways carry any of the tasty ones, or is it all the cheap, barely-flavoured generic snacks? These are all things I cannot experience while riding in an airplane, despite the fact I am in the plane.”

                “Huh. I never thought about it like that,” Junjie mused, “I suppose you do miss out on a lot, being dead, and all. So, wait, why do you disappear whenever someone comes around?”

                “Primarily because I’m not supposed to be here and if a steward or stewardess sees me that could cause a bit of an incident. Have you ever seen eight hundred people panicking and running around terrified in a confined space?”

                “No…”

                “Trust me: you don’t want to, either,” Elidyr said, “Ghosts scare people, for some reason. I don’t think that I am especially frightening, but apparently, being a ghost at all is scary enough.”

                “So what’s waiting for you in Phoenix?”

                “Roads.”

                “Huh?”

                “You know, beep-beep, vroom-vroom?” repeated Elidyr.

                “You’re lucky you’re cute, and dead. If you were solid, I’d slap you.”

                “Hmm, there’s something I haven’t experienced in a few centuries. Anyway, I hadn’t really decided where I wanted to go once we get to Phoenix. What about you, you stopping there, or continuing on somewhere else?”

                “Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It has sun, water, and a good school. I’ll be pursuing my bachelor’s in geology, at the campus of Northern Arizona University, there. It’s a pretty good school, my parents feel good about my chances, you know, for making a better life for myself than they’ve been able to make for themselves.”

                “Hmm, Arizona… sure, I guess I’ll go with you to Arizona. I hear there’s some pretty awesome stuff to see in the southwestern United States, and I have to start my exploration of North America somewhere.”

                “I’m sure I’ll be okay on my own, if you’d rather go somewhere else,” Junjie offered.

                “No, it’s no big deal at all, not like I don’t have literally forever to wander around North America exploring a new continent, or anything,” Elidyr answered cheerfully, and Junjie nodded.

                “All right, well, if you’re sure, then, welcome aboard, I guess?”

                “Sweet,” replied Elidyr, and remained mostly out-of-sight for the rest of the flight. Occasionally, Junjie had questions about British history, desiring the input of someone with firsthand observation of the events in question, and when no one was looking, Elidyr would reappear to answer them. Even though he could answer vocally without being visible, he’d found that usually made people more uncomfortable instead of less.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ongoing story of Elidyr Kemble and Junjie Shen.

                When the plane finally landed at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, Junjie slipped his carry-on pack over his shoulder and went to collect his suitcases. A suitcase in each hand, he met Elidyr outside of the airport, where the other was pondering over the airport’s name on a sign nearby.

                “Something wrong?” asked Junjie, “It isn’t too hot for you, is it?”

                “I’m dead, I don’t get hot. Doesn’t harbour have a u in it?” Elidyr replied. Junjie blinked, looking from Elidyr to the sign, and lifting an eyebrow.

                “Not in America, apparently,” Junjie answered, but then rolled his shoulders a bit.

                “Oh, well,” Elidyr continued, shrugging a bit as well, “So are we taking a bus or a cab, now?”

                “Cab,” Junjie replied before hailing one and quickly putting his suitcases on the seat, pushing them over, and sitting beside them, “Northern Arizona University, please.” Elidyr rode with him, in invisible silence as not to cause an accident by spooking the cab driver, and when Junjie paused, Elidyr spoke.

                “I’m still here, don’t worry. You go ahead in and do whatever you need to do. I have to make contact with a connection in the city, I’ll meet you back here?”

                “Sure, sounds good,” Junjie replied, slowly acclimating to talking to someone who happened to be invisible, for whom remaining invisible was more convenient for most people. While Junjie went inside, Elidyr floated across the small town of sixty thousand residents to meet up with someone whom he assured he would make contact with as soon as he reached the city.

                As he neared the outdoor café of the Starbucks on McCulloch Boulevard, he moved into an alley and, then, made himself visible once more. He then casually strolled out into the sunlight, pausing a moment to look up towards the beautiful skies overhead, so foreign compared to what he was used to in England. A moment later, Elidyr turned his attention back toward the café and headed in that direction, before seeing a familiar face at an outdoor table.

                A young woman who had the appearance of a nineteen-year-old with a light complexion complimented by dark brown hair and irises, Esmeralda Remington had always struck him as an unforgettable individual. He was simply glad she remembered the fact that he was a ghost, and couldn’t actually open a door for himself, in the absence of his having a body to open the door with. He also took note that there were two males keeping her company, though neither of them looked like they were especially healthy individuals.

                “Elidyr, it’s been a long time. I thought they must have been kidding when they told me you were coming to join us in sunny Arizona. You finally decided to explore some other places, huh?”

                “Yeah, I saw pretty much every square metre of those islands, so, figured it was about time I branch out, and North America seemed big enough to hold my attention for a while,” Elidyr replied, before glancing inquisitively over toward the two young men. One was fourteen, with a sort of withered appearance, green eyes, and no hair Elidyr could see, dressed in a white tee and a pair of knee-length jean shorts, with a pair of white ankle-socks and some white and grey sneakers. The other was nineteen, similarly lacking for hair, with blue eyes and a much lighter complexion than the younger one, but clothed in more-or-less the same kind of outfit. A light grey tee with a horizontal pattern of some sort, three different shades of light grey in a sort of mottled, stripe-like design, black jean shorts that weren’t too short but didn’t quite reach his knees, either, and white sneakers with light grey ankle-socks.

                “Elidyr, let me introduce Quique Avelino and Clark Rasmussen,” Esmeralda said, introducing the fourteen-year-old first, “Quique is in the end phase of progeria, and Clark has terminal lung cancer due to secondhand smoke. They’re willing to let you borrow their bodies pretty much almost continuously; Quique has been taken out of school because of his condition and Clark cannot work, so his family has been taking care of him financially. I’ve explained everything to both of their parents, and I’ve already arranged a comfortable apartment so you’ll have somewhere that you can, ah, exist, while you’re, uh, repairing them?”

                “Thanks, Esmeralda. Have you explained to them how this is going to work?”

                “No, I’m a wolf not a ghost, I have no clue how it is you do what you do, I figured I’d let you explain that,” Esmeralda replied.

                “All right, that’s fine,” Elidyr replied with a smile, before turning his attention toward the boys, “My name is Elidyr Kemble. I was born in 1203 in Cardiff, Wales, and died in 1214 in London, England; you should also know in advance that I’m gay, in case that might be a problem for you.”

                “I don’t have a problem with it,” Quique replied, and Clark shook his head to indicate that he didn’t, either.

                “Okay, good. Now, first thing’s first, this isn’t ghostly possession, it’s more like borrowing: I can only enter your body when I have permission to do so, and only for the period of time you are willing to allow. Once I enter your body, your body will transform into my body, and your body will enter a sort of stasis that will stall your body’s aging and deterioration rates, and sharply increase your body’s natural regenerative processes. Functionally, your bodies are a combination of asleep and in stasis,” Elidyr explained as thoroughly as he could, “This is how borrowing your body causes a sharp increase in your natural healing rate and the efficiency of your immune system’s response to the threats your bodies are facing.”

                “So it’s sort of like in an MMO when someone uses a stun that has a damage-over-time effect on whatever was just stunned and a heal-over-time effect for the user and their party?” asked Clark, to which Elidyr nodded.

                “Pretty much, yeah,” Elidyr replied, “Now, I won’t know whose condition is more severe for sure until I’m able to examine both of you, but I’ll have to borrow from whoever’s body is in worse condition.”

                “All right, is everyone set to go to Elidyr’s new apartment?” asked Esmeralda, and both young men nodded in answer, and accompanied her to her vehicle, a silver-coloured 2015 BMW X5.

                “Damn, this is nice, Esmeralda,” Elidyr observed as he floated into the vehicle, feigning climbing in through the door she opened for him. He took the passenger seat in front, letting the two young men have the more comfortable passenger seats behind them, where they could rest.

                “Thanks, being a pack leader has some perks,” Esmeralda replied as she turned over the ignition and set out for their destination, soon pulling out onto McCulloch Boulevard, “It’s also been upgraded rather considerably. It has armour plating to protect it in the event of a Hunter attack, though they wouldn’t dare attack as publicly as right now.” Less than a half-hour later, they pulled into a nice apartment complex with a few buildings around a large communal pool, entering the main building where there was a kindly looking older gentleman waiting for them.

                “Mister Greyson, good afternoon, it’s nice to see you. Is the apartment all set?”

                “Yes, Ma’am, Miss Remington, everything is set and in order for our guests. I take it these’re the boys moving into the new apartment?”

                “Yes. This is Elidyr, Quique, and Clark. You’ll forgive Elidyr if he doesn’t shake hands,” Esmeralda said, to which the man nodded understandingly.

                “Of course, naturally,” he said, before shaking hands gently with the two sickly young men, “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, lads. My name’s Alfred Greyson, I’m the manager of this development. If there’s anything you need taken care of, any special arrangements you need made, you simply let me know and I’ll take care of it for you. Esmeralda, here’s the key, it’s building C, apartment number 107, it’s on the ground floor to allow easier access.”

                “Thank you, Alfred,” she said, taking the key and then proceeding to lead the three young men from the main structure to building C and the seventh apartment on the first floor. Entering the apartment revealed it had one and a half bathrooms, three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room, as well as a combination laundry room, pantry, and linen closet.

                “Hardwood floors except in the kitchen, bathrooms, and dining rooms, textured tiles in those rooms, and here are the bedrooms,” Esmeralda said, showing a kitchen and dining room with large windows and the other two rooms, which lacked windows, before moving to the bedrooms. The bedrooms themselves were also located on an external wall, having a good-sized window on the far side of each room, all three being equal in size.

                “It was decided Quique and Clark would share one of the corner rooms, so there’re two beds in that room, in opposite corners, and yours is in the middle with the guestroom on the other side. There is a bed in the guestroom, as well,” Esmeralda continued, “and one in your room in the event that you should find someone of intimate interest here in Lake Havasu City. We’ll arrange for any additional requirements to be met as they come up, but this’ll be yours as long as you’re in the city, and you’re free to do whatever you want with it while you’re here. Your expenses are fully covered, naturally, in the interest of providing regenerative aid to the humans in the area for as long as you’re here.”

                “Sounds good, thank you, Esmeralda,” Elidyr replied, “It’s good to see you again.”

                “You, too, Elidyr,” she said in return, “I have to go now, though; I have a pack meeting to preside over, this evening. I’m sure I’ll see you around, now that you’re in town with a couple bodies to spare.” Then, Esmeralda placed the key on a small table along the wall near the door leading back outside, and exited the building, locking their door behind her as she went.

                “All right, so, do we have to get undressed or anything?” asked Quique now that it was just the three of them.

                “Undressed for what?” asked Elidyr, blinking a little at him.

                “For you to examine us?” clarified Quique, to which Elidyr shook his head.

                “Nope, just stand up straight and remain still,” Elidyr replied, then tilted his head as if he were cracking his neck, though he had none to crack and no sound came of the movement. His form became faintly luminescent, fading into a sort of translucency as he hovered forward until he was directly in front of the fourteen-year-old. Elidyr reached his hands forward, slipping his fingertips through the shirt and into Quique’s upper torso, connecting to him in a way that caused Quique to take a sudden breath and blink rapidly at the unfamiliar sensation. Meanwhile, Elidyr narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, before slipping his hands out of the young man’s body and turning toward Clark, who swallowed a little nervously but stood still as Elidyr slid his hands into him, as well.

                “Hmm… Quique’s condition is worse right now. I’ll need to borrow his body first, why don’t you go and get settled into your room, see if there’s anything they missed that we need?”

                “Yes, sir,” replied Clark politely, and Elidyr blinked.

                “Sir?” asked Elidyr in response.

                “My parents taught me to respect my elders, and Esmeralda says you’re far older than my parents, plus you’re saving my life, so, sir feels appropriate. If you don’t like it, I can say something else instead,” Clark answered, pausing at the door of what had been indicated as the room he’d share with Quique.

                “No, it’s okay, I don’t mind. If you want to call me sir you can, but you don’t have to,” Elidyr answered, with a warm and reassuring smile.

                “Thank you, sir,” Clark replied deferentially, then moved into the room to examine it more closely than he’d had a chance when Esmeralda was there.

                “So, what do I do now, sir?” asked Quique, deciding to copy Clark’s deferential posture toward their healer.

                “All right, now, just give me permission to use your body for a while,” Elidyr replied.

                “How long do you need it for?”

                “Well, given your health, I’d need it for two weeks to get you properly stabilized,” Elidyr answered, and the young man nodded promptly.

                “Okay. I give you permission to use my body as if it were your own, for two weeks, sir,” Quique said in turn, and Elidyr smiled appreciatively.

                “Thank you, Quique. Hold still, this’ll probably feel a little strange at first,” Elidyr said, and Quique stood as still as he could. Elidyr moved around behind him, adopted a pose identical to Quique’s, and floated forward until his entire ethereal form slipped inside of the younger male’s corporeal form. Almost instantaneously, Quique’s physical appearance melted away, skin paling until it was Elidyr’s personal complexion, hair of true-black colour growing out to elbow-length in a ponytail, eyes changing from one shade of green to a darker shade. Simultaneously, his clothing transformed from what he had been wearing to Elidyr’s clothes, transitioning from head to toe, as he acclimated to the fact he was now a little shorter than before and lighter than he was used to being.

                “So what now?” asked Quique inside his brain, as he found himself standing in a room that was remarkably misty and hard to see anything in, even his own hands when he held his arms out in front of him. A moment later, he covered his eyes reflexively as a bright light flashed in the mist.

                “All right,” Elidyr replied inside his brain, “Wow, foggier than normal.”

                “You mean foggy is normal?”

                “First time borrowings usually are, yes,” Elidyr replied from somewhere ahead of him in the dense mist, “All right, let’s clear this out so we can see better.” Abruptly, the fog started to thin until Quique could see the other male, and the surroundings, as well. It looked like a large room with stucco walls, a drywall ceiling, and hardwood floors, a massive window in one wall which he realized was his field of vision. He approached it, reaching out until he pressed his palm against a sheer, glassy surface, and when he rapped his knuckles on it firmly, it made exactly the sound one would’ve expected it to make if it were a glass window.

                “You were expecting glass, huh?”

                “How could you tell?”

                “If you’d been expecting plastic, it would’ve made the sound of plastic, and if you’d been expecting crystal, it would’ve made the sound of crystal. One person expected a Star Trek-style force field, and when they knocked on it, it hummed the same way Star Trek force fields hum when someone smacks into them. It’s all about expectations, I think,” Elidyr explained, “You may want to turn around now.” As he took the advice, Quique found a pair of double doors in the back of the room, on the opposite wall as the huge window of his field-of-vision.

                “What’re those?”

                “They’re doors, to parts of your mind that will let you not focus on what I’m using your body for if you don’t feel like watching,” Elidyr explained, “right and left based on if you were facing the window, by the way. Your brain has a collection of rooms; you can go to any one you want, it’s your brain, and the doors are usually clearly marked in most people’s brains because their brain understands how their brain functions, even if the person as an individual might not.”

                “So what kind of stuff can I do back there?”

                “Well, any media you remember that you’ve watched the whole thing or listened to the whole song or read the entire book, you can revisit that. Like if you watched a movie and you really enjoyed it, concentrate on the movie and you can watch it again, start to finish,” explained Elidyr, “One thing, though. You can’t eat or drink in here, at all, but your body’s also in stasis so you won’t become hungry or thirsty while you’re in here, either. If you decide you want to watch what’s going on outside, just focus your thoughts on that, just think about that you’d like to go outside, and then you can watch from a third-person perspective. You can change angles simply by thinking your perspective left or right, up or down, or whatever you want, and to return to your mind just concentrate on going inside again.” It was at this point that Elidyr paused to let the young man process, mainly because he didn’t want to overload the young man with information. Even so, he felt as if it was his responsibility to make sure the young man understood as much as possible to hopefully minimize his boredom.

                “How far can I… uh, well, zoom out?”

                “When outside the body, you won’t be able to pull back by more than something like about ten metres when we’re outside, inside you won’t be able to pull back any further than the walls of the room allow. The body will always be in the centre of your vision when you decide to observe what’s going on, as it’s still essentially your body, despite that I’m making use of it for a little while, and so your soul and consciousness are connected to it.”

                “Okay, I understand. Thank you for being so patient and explaining everything to me, sir,” Quique replied in that large room in the front of his mind, and Elidyr nodded with a smile.

                “You’re doing me a favour as much as I’m doing you a favour. It’s been twenty years since someone let me borrow their body, and I like healing people. All you need to do is try to relax and rest for a couple weeks while your body’s healing, after that I’m going to have to borrow Clark’s body for a while and get his health more stabilized, too. I chose your body first because you’re the closest to death, but I’m glad Esmeralda was able to find both of you, since neither one of you would’ve been alive next year if she hadn’t.” Quique nodded appreciatively, then approached him and hugged the young Welshman firmly.

                “I know sir, and thank you for coming. I’m glad you decided to explore Arizona first.”

                “You’re welcome. Fortunately, you’re young enough that your parents can wait a couple years before getting you back in full, and then you’ll be in perfect health and able to live a long, productive life. Now, time for me to get out of here so you can rest,” Elidyr said, and as Quique nodded and stepped back, Elidyr dissolved from his presence in the young man’s mind. As he settled, he twisted his head and cracked his neck to either side as Clark was back out of the room, blinking as he noticed there was only the one person in the room.

                “Hey, where’d Quique go? Didn’t you use to be a little taller?”

                “I am in Quique’s body right now, he’s resting comfortably, I just finished explaining everything to him once I got settled into the body,” Elidyr replied, and Clark blinked, but nodded.

                “Wow, so when you borrow the body, you completely transform it to your own?”

                “Pretty much,” Elidyr replied, “My body replaces the host’s body in its’ entirety, allowing the host body, in this case Quique’s body, to heal and recover from the debilitating impact of his condition. I’ll be taller when I borrow your body, because you’re taller than Quique and you’re taller than I was in life.”

                “Ah, okay, I get it. So how long will you be in Quique?”

                “I told him I would need two weeks to get his body’s health stabilized, so that’s how long he gave me. He’ll be feeling a lot better when I vacate his body in a couple weeks and move into yours for a while.”

                “Huh, I see. How long will you need to borrow my body to get mine stabilized, do you think?”

                “About ten days, yours is a lot closer to safe than his, and your deterioration rate is also just slightly lower,” Elidyr replied, and Clark nodded, “So, are we missing anything?”

                “Video games, there’s not an X-Box or a PlayStation in my room, but there is a pretty high-quality computer, and our internet connection’s seriously amazing. I didn’t think internet like this existed in Lake Havasu City, so I am going to download a bunch of games so Quique and I have something to do when you’re borrowing the other one.”

                “Sounds good,” Elidyr replied with a nod before moving into his room in the middle, “I am going to be going out for a little while, but I will be back later. I won’t be driving because I don’t have a license and it’s been like forty years since I’ve driven anything, but if you need food, feel free to order delivery.”

                “Yes, sir, thank you,” Clark answered from the living room, “Do you want me to download anything for you on your computer?”

                “Nah, there’s a pool here, so I will probably end up spending lots of time in it. I love to swim, it’s so freeing,” Elidyr replied, as he looked around the room. He quickly found a cell phone with numbers already programmed into it, a wallet with two hundred and sixty dollars in cash in a collection of ones, tens, and twenties. As he briefly explored the room provided him, he found they had also stocked the dresser with a couple outfits, some shoes, and two pairs of swimming trunks, in his size. He immediately stripped down from the warm, handwoven clothes his mother made for him, folding them with care and putting them in an empty drawer, before dressing himself in a pair of sleeveless white shirt, short white boxers, and thigh-length shorts of dark blue denim. He took a quick look at the shoes available before picking out a pair of sandals with soles of coffee-brown leather and pastel-brown bindings. Sandals were a brand new experience, but with a little guidance from Quique, he quickly bound the sandals, which secured the bridge of his foot and his ankles, ensuring the sandals would neither come off nor feel too loose.

                “Hmm, not bad,” Elidyr said to himself as he regarded himself in the mirror with some satisfaction, feeling as if the clothes fit nicely and looked decent enough on him. Then, he slid the wallet into one pocket and the cell phone into the other, grabbed the keys, and slipped out the door to go meet up with Junjie. He had a feeling Junjie would be more than slightly surprised to see him in the flesh, as it were, but he was looking forward to hanging out and getting to know him better.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ongoing story of Elidyr Kemble and Junjie Shen.

                Junjie watched as Elidyr moved around a corner and, he assumed, went from visible to invisible, and then he proceeded into the registration building to talk to someone there about the possible availability of dormitories for him as a foreigner coming to the United States for school. He walked in and went directly to the desk, where there was a young woman that looked as if she might be in her mid to late twenties.

                “Hello, I’m Junjie Shen, I just arrived from England. Are there any dormitories available?”

                “Welcome to Arizona, Mister Shen,” the woman replied, whose name according to her nametag was Amanda, “Let me check… damn, it seems there are no vacant dormitories right now. Here, here’s a list of some student-friendly apartments that are covered under the new expansions to financial aid and the grants and scholarships systems.”

                “All right, thank you,” Junjie replied, “The campus is beautiful, and kind of big. Are there tours for the next semester?”

                “Yeah, hold on, I’ll call someone,” replied the receptionist at the registrar building, pressing a button on her phone and picking up the receiver, “Vera, I have another student who needs a tour before next semester begins. He’s… hold on. What’s your major?”

                “Geology,” Junjie replied politely, and she nodded.

                “He’s majoring in geology, his name’s Junjie Shen, just arrived from England. All right, I’ll tell him,” replied Amanda before hanging up the phone, “She’ll be here in about five minutes. You know, you picked a great time for coming over from England.”

                “How so?” Junjie asked, curiously.

                “Well, it’s only the third of June, so you’ll have three months to get settled in, acclimate yourself to the city and familiarize yourself with how to get around the city and the campus,” Amanda explained, “It’s supposed to be an absolutely beautiful summer, it’ll be a great chance for you to get used to the weather, too. Anyway, that pamphlet is all the apartments that are within a few miles of the campus, figure you probably won’t want to walk too far. Also, if you happen to be able to afford to get a car for yourself, just let us know and we’ll see that you get validated for student parking.”

                “Oh, right. I need to update my driver’s license to an American license, too,” Junjie said, as much to himself as to the receptionist, who nodded.

                “Yeah, but you’ve got like two months,” she offered, “You should definitely go to the DMV quickly, though. I mean, it’s a Monday, but on a beautiful day like today, they’re probably actually pretty slow right now, at least slow enough that you should be able to get in and get out in under an hour.”

                “Sounds good,” Junjie replied with a nod, and then looked over toward the door as it opened and a woman in her early thirties walked in, with blue eyes and light brown hair complimenting a well-tanned complexion that spoke of someone who liked the sun.

                “Mister Shen, this is Vera Cross, she’ll be your tour guide,” Amanda said, as Vera crossed over the younger male and offered her hand, and he shook hands with her politely.

                “Nice to meet you, miss. I’m Junjie,” he said in self-introduction, and she nodded.

                “Pleasure to meet you, you can go ahead and just call me Vera. I’m not a professor or anything, they just pay me to show people around the campus and make sure the students don’t get lost. I mean, it is kind of a big campus. I know you probably have a lot to do, since you only just got here from England, so I’ll make it as quick as possible.” Junjie nodded and followed her out of the registrar building, and spent a little more than an hour familiarizing himself with just the buildings he would need to know where they were for his own specific course curriculum.

                From there, he took a cab to the local office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which took up an additional forty minutes, before taking a taxi to the nearest Chrysler used car lot. As he waved off the cab, he was thankful that the receptionist of the university had agreed to hold his suitcases at the registrar’s office. He’d be able to easily enough pick them back up once he returned from a couple errands, and it was apparently part of university policy for foreign students in their first day in the country, one he was quite thankful for.

                As he turned back toward the collection of vehicles, he noticed that a rather handsome salesman was walking in his direction at a courteously leisurely pace, already. He looked to be about thirty-two years old, with spiky hair of golden blond and eyes of a greenish-hazel colour, dressed in a pair of khaki pants and light brown dress shoes, with a white polo shirt.

                “Good afternoon, sir, welcome to our lot. My name’s Roger, is there anything I can help you with today?”

                “I do most certainly hope so, Roger,” Junjie replied, his English accent causing the salesman to blink a little bit, perhaps having expected a different accent, understandably, “My name’s Junjie, I just arrived from England, and need a dependable car to travel between school and an apartment, so my finances are limited.”

                “All right, I think I can help with that, in this economy it seems as if even people with a dependable income don’t have a whole lot of money on-hand at any given moment. So, tell me what kind of car you were thinking, and what kind of budget are we looking at?” replied Roger good-naturedly, turning to stand beside Junjie and look out on all the cars parked in the lot at that moment.

                “Well, I can afford to make a down payment of two thousand, and I can afford to make payments of around five hundred a month,” Junjie replied, “I’d like a sedan, something American-made and dependable, probably not new because I’m sure that would understandably cost more and require a larger down payment.”

                “I think we have a good selection available for that price range, actually,” Roger said, and Junjie smiled, just a little surprised by the fact he would have a fair spread of choices, “so, that brings us to my next question. Is there a particular colour you might like?”

                “Blue and grey are my personal favourites,” Junjie replied, and Roger nodded once more and started to walk, motioning for him to accompany him.

                “All right, right this way, sir, I think we have some good options for you. Do you mind if we start with actual Chryslers, first?”

                “No, that would be perfect. I mean, I did come to a Chrysler dealership after all, right?”

                “That you did,” Roger replied with good-humoured agreeability, and led the way to their selection of vehicles that were both used and more than two years old. They walked for about twenty minutes before Roger brought him to see a 2015 Chrysler 200, which Junjie immediately broke away from him to walk around and examine it.

                “This car’s a beauty, isn’t it?” asked Roger, and Junjie nodded.

                “You mean this car’s actually in my price range?”

                “Yes it is, and we have four of them on the lot, right now, in three colours. This one’s one of our two in what the bigwigs who name the colours called vivid blue pearl. We also have one that’s basically silver and one that’s pretty much darker silver,” Roger replied, and Junjie chuckled and nodded.

                “I’ll never understand why they feel like they need to make up some complicated name for the paintjob, but, yeah, this one’s beautiful,” Junjie replied, and Roger nodded.

                “So this is the one you’d like, then?”

                “Absolutely,” Junjie replied, following him inside to handle the paperwork, which took another twenty or so minutes. The car itself turned out to have a price of twelve thousand, though Junjie was better at haggling than Roger initially expected, in all likelihood, and got the price down to ten thousand five hundred. He also knew when to stop, signing and making the promised down payment with a check, took the keys, and with perhaps an excess of caution, drove off the lot and used the GPS to find his way back to the university campus. Once there, he parked carefully and then got out to head back to the front of the building, where he was surprised to see Elidyr waiting for him, dressed a lot differently than before and looking slightly different somehow.

                “Elidyr?” asked Junjie, as he approached.

                “Hey Junjie, where were you?” Elidyr replied. As he walked up to the youthful ghost, he realized that Elidyr seemed a little shorter than before and a little skinnier, in addition to the rather noticeable wardrobe switch.

                “I toured the campus to learn where all my classes are going to be, they have no vacancies in the dormitories, so I had to go to the DMV to replace my license with an American one and the used car lot to get a car. Now I’ll need to go look for an apartment, she gave me a pamphlet with a list of the nearest ones,” Junjie replied, “So what’s up with the new look? Weren’t you taller on the plane?”

                “Yeah, my meeting with my contact went really well. I now have an apartment and two bodies, this is one of the bodies I’m borrowing,” Elidyr replied, then turned his head slightly, “No, I met him on the plane.”

                “Damn, your appointment went a lot better than mine. Wait, who are you talking to?”

                “My host, this body’s owner,” Elidyr answered casually.

                “Tell him I said hello.”

                “He says hi,” Elidyr replied immediately.

                “Can he hear me?”

                “Yes, but you can’t hear him,” Elidyr answered, “So, is Lakecrest Village listed in that pamphlet?”

                “Let me… nope, no Lakecrest Village, why?”

                “That’s where I’m at. I have a spare room if you don’t mind having one dead roommate and two almost-dead roommates,” Elidyr replied, and Junjie smiled at him a little.

                “That is very sweet of you. Sure, we’ll give it a try and see how it goes, I’ll look at these other options so that I can move out quickly enough if it doesn’t work out well. Let me go get my suitcases from the registrar,” Junjie said, and Elidyr nodded. He followed him in, looking around the campus and seeming to any onlooker as if he were just an average, slightly shorter-than-average sixteen-year-old who had never been in a college before.

                “Hey, I’m back, miss,” said Junjie to the receptionist.

                “Did you find everything you needed?”

                “Yep, I’ll need my parking validated; I did manage to find a car that was within my price range,” Junjie said in answer, picking up his suitcases from the corner.

                “All right, not a problem. Did you find somewhere to stay?”

                “My friend has an apartment in Lakecrest Village, he’s going to let me stay with him for a while,” he said in reply, and she blinked at him a little in surprise.

                “Wow, that’s a pretty nice place, but slightly pricy. I have been trying to get an apartment there for two years, I have a friend who has one but she lives there with her family so no room for a roommate. I could even afford to live there on my own, in one of their studio apartments, but they have a long waiting list,” Amanda explained, “You are really lucky you have a friend with an extra room. You’re going to love it there, I’m sure.”

                “Thanks. I hope you’ll get a call sometime soon about an opening so that you’ll have the opportunity to move in there, too, I’m glad they pay you enough to be able to afford it,” Junjie replied, then excused himself and walked to his car with Elidyr following.

                “Exactly how expensive is this apartment?”

                “I don’t know, it’s free for me,” Elidyr replied as they reached the car, “Wow, nice wheels!”

                “Thanks,” Junjie said as he opened the trunk and put his suitcases in, “Must be nice to have an apartment that is fully covered like that. So, where are we going?” As he answered, he moved to the driver’s side door and unlocked it, letting Elidyr get in the passenger side as he took his seat on the driver’s side. Elidyr punched in the coordinates on the GPS as he answered.

                “It’s on the east side of London Bridge Road, north of Palo Verde Boulevard, just south of The Refuge Golf and Country Club. It also has an east exist on highway 95, but the London Bridge Road entrance is easier to manage,” Elidyr explained, and Junjie nodded. He drove slow, careful as he acclimated himself to American driving tendencies and being on the opposite side of the road as he was used to, but stayed within a few miles of the posted speed limits.

                “Wow, there’s a wall, and everything,” Junjie said in surprise as they neared their destination and started to drive past the brick wall with fancy metal bars on top of it, “Never thought I’d live in a gated community. Okay, where to, Elidyr?”

                “You can just call me El or Eli, by the way,” Elidyr answered, then motioned towards a building marked with a large C on it, “All right, park here. It’s apartment 107.” As Junjie parked and popped the trunk, Eli got out of the car and moved immediately to collect one of the suitcases, which was a bit heavier than he was expecting, though he was able to manage it.

                “Thanks, Eli,” Junjie said, “Oh, and you can call me Jun if you like.” Eli nodded in answer, fishing the key out of his pocket as they reached the door and unlocking it, opening it and stepping inside with one suitcase while his new friend followed him in with the other. He whistled low as he looked around, no one could have accused this place of being poorly furnished. It was no lavish five-star hotel or celebrity mansion, but it was somewhere just a little bit above comfortable.

                “Damn, this place is nice,” Jun said, and Eli smiled.

                “All right, this way, this one’ll be your room. Mine’s in the middle; the two young men that’re ill, they share the third room. Since I’ll probably always be in one of them until one of them is fully healed,” Elidyr explained, as he put the suitcase down in what would now be Jun’s room, “it’s almost like they each have their own room. It’s just the same room since they’ll probably never both be here at the same time.”

                “Right,” Jun nodded, “I get it. So, can you tell me what’s going on, now?”

                “I can, yes,” Eli said, motioning toward the dining room table before heading over to take a seat, himself, “I will start with some basic stuff, you can ask questions once that’s out of the way.”

                “All right, lay it on me. I can handle it.”

                “Ghosts are only able to take on a physical form through the borrowing, we need to find someone who has a body and is willing to let us have it for a little while. Sometimes, the body provided belongs to a friend of the ghost if we have a friend that likes us that much, but usually, it’s someone who needs something that only the borrowing could provide.”

                “You mean when you borrow someone’s body, they get something out of the arrangement, too?”

                “Yep, and that’s why the broad majority of cases of a ghost borrowing someone’s body occur with people in rather dire health at that particular moment. One of my hosts is nineteen, with end-phase lung cancer from secondhand smoke, and less than a year to live; my current host is fourteen and has progeria, and also had under a year left to live,” Eli explained.

                “Had, past tense?”

                “Yes. Well, sort of yes,” Eli replied, “As long as I am borrowing his body, his body will heal at an accelerated rate because this body is mine, his is essentially in stasis.”

                “Ah, I get it. While you have your body, their body’s unable to continue deteriorating and will start to heal,” Jun replied, and Eli nodded, “So, how did you know these guys needed help?”

                “We have people who monitor dire health cases among humans in case a ghost should arrive in an area who is agreeable to such healing arrangements,” Eli answered, “We can’t save everyone. We do what we can, for the most part, quietly and out of the sight of the public.”

                “Ah, I see. So when you say ‘we,’ who are you referring to?”

                “All of us who live among humans in secret. It’s called the Masquerade because we choose, almost all of us, to remain out of the awareness of the mass majority of humankind. We all used to be human, but we’re not so human, anymore, and there’re people who would kill those of us that can be killed, for not being human anymore.”

                “So basically there’s a lot of things I don’t think are real that are actually real,” Jun replied, and Eli nodded.

                “That about sums it up, yes.”

                “All right, then,” Jun answered slowly, taking a deep breath and letting it all soak in, “So your friend here in the city, he’s a, uh…?”

                “He’s a she, known her for a few centuries now, and she’s a werewolf,” he replied calmly, and Junjie blinked at him again.

                “Wow. I think I need something to eat,” Jun said, standing and going into the kitchen to check the refrigerator, “This is all kind of… a lot to process.”

                “Yes it is,” Eli replied, as he heard the sound of a door opening.

                “Pardon me, sir?” asked Clark as he came out, and Jun looked over at him as he closed the refrigerator door, “Oh, sorry, sir. I didn’t realize you had company.”

                “It’s okay, Clark. This is Junjie, he’s going to be staying with us for a while, maybe longer. What’s up?”

                “I ordered pizza. It’ll be here in a few minutes,” Clark answered, and Eli nodded.

                “You like pizza, Jun?”

                “I love pizza, pizza is very agreeable to me,” he replied, returning to a seat at the table, “I have to be honest. I wouldn’t believe any of this if I didn’t already know for certain that you’re a ghost.”

                “That’s fair and reasonable,” Eli replied, “Yesterday you went to bed in a world that was exactly as you had always imagined it. Tonight you know that ghosts are real and that it’s only the tip of the iceberg and that tomorrow, you might even learn about more.” The door rang, and Eli got up to collect the pizza and paid the man, accompanied by a considerate tip, then he closed the door and carried the pizza boxes back to the table.

                “You ordered two?”

                “Yeah, I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I ordered one with pepperoni, sausage, peppers, mushrooms, olives, and jalapeno, and one with pepperoni, sausage, extra cheddar cheese, and sweet sauce,” Clark answered promptly.

               “Huh, both great choices,” he replied, and then looked to Jun, “You like sweet or spicy?”

                “I’m fond of both,” Jun answered, “spicy seems good to start with, though.” Then, the three of them sat down and Eli collected plates from the cupboard, and took a slice of the spicy supreme for each of them.

                “So, how long do you have this body for, Eli?”

                “Just a shade under two weeks, then I will be borrowing from Clark, here, for several days, to repair damage done by the smoking of people around him,” replied Eli, “So Jun, what kind of stuff do you like to do for fun?”

                “I like chess and swimming, I’ve always wanted to learn how to ride a horse and how to surf,” Jun answered, “Some other more private stuff. How about you, though, what do you enjoy?”

                “I like chess, swimming, tennis, badminton, and horseback riding, and would love to learn to how to surf and snowboard,” Eli answered, “Some private stuff, too. We can talk about that sometime, though, if you are interested.”

                “Sure, that sounds good. Oh, also, I have practiced tai chi for my entire life, and I want to learn how to play the saxophone,” Jun said, and Eli nodded as he listened, “It’s the only instrument I’ve ever found myself wanting to figure out how to play.”

                “That’s a sexy instrument, and it doesn’t require any other instruments to sound good,” Eli agreed, and Jun nodded enthusiastically.

                “Exactly!” he agreed emphatically, “I mean, I realize I would never be a world-famous saxophonist, but hey, I would be happy to be a social saxophonist whose community enjoys it. That’d be more than enough, you know?”

                “I totally understand how you feel. I don’t think I’d ever be able to do something like that because each body needs to be reconditioned to the various activities,” Eli answered, and Jun nodded.

                “That makes sense. Just because you’re a badass on horseback doesn’t mean the body you’re borrowing right at that moment has the muscle tone to absorb that skill,” Junjie agreed understandingly.

                “So what’s your birthday?”

                “May eleventh, 2001,” Junjie replied between bites of his third slice of pizza, “You?”

                “Fourth of March, 1203,” Elidyr said in return, rolling his eyes a little, when Junjie whistled in response.

                “So what was England like eight hundred years ago, anyway?”

                “Colder,” joked Elidyr, and Junjie blinked.

                “Excuse me?”

                “It was before the onset of global warming. It was colder.” Junjie blinked at him again and narrowed his eyes with a mock expression of austerity.

                “You are lucky you’re cute.”

                “Thank you,” Eli replied, standing up as he finished his third slice of pizza and put the plate in the dishwasher, “I’m going to take a shower. It feels like it has been forever, and I want to remind myself what warm water feels like.” Junjie’s right eyebrow seemed to twitch for a moment as he said that, and he nodded.

                “Enjoy the reminiscence, I guess. I am going to go on ahead and go to bed,” Jun said in return, “Would you like to maybe go swimming tomorrow? I saw the pool out there, it looks massive.”

                “Sure, sounds good. They did include some swim trunks in my dresser, so I’m prepped for that,” he answered as he headed toward the bathroom, “I’ll probably want to lay out in the sun for a while, too. Hope the new bed’s right for you. Good night.” Then, he stepped into the bathroom, closed the door behind himself, and turned on the shower.


End file.
